Downtown L.A. to Finally Get $1.8B Mixed-Use Redevelopment

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April 25, 2006
By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

The long awaited $1.8 billon revitalization plan for Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles has finally been unveiled. During a press conference yesterday with the The Related Companies, renown architect Frank Gehry and local officials, Carol Schatz, president & CEO of the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, related the plans.

The project calls for a 275-room luxury hotel, stores, restaurants and more than 2,000 residences to be built in three phases over seven or eight years. For phase one, Gehry, who designed the nearby Disney Concert Hall, has planned two skyscrapers covered in translucent glass. The 50-foot tower would have the hotel and spa, 250 condominiums and rooftop pools. The smaller building, with 25 stories, would have 150 condos and 100 affordable housing units. A 16-acre public park would also be included in the initial development. A public hearing will be held on the proposal next month. If approvals are granted by the fall, development could start by the end of the year, said Schatz. Phase one is expected to be finished within three years.

"The demand on available spaces is huge," Derrick Moore, a senior associate in the Urban Redevelopment Group of CB Richard Ellis in Los Angeles, told CPN this afternoon. "Just a year ago we weren't seeing national names come."